High pressure fluid medium container and control valve therefor



A. TOWART. JR 2,258,869

HIGH PRESSURE FLUID MEDIUM CONTAINER AND CONTROL VALVE THEREFOR Filed March 5, 1938 IN VENTOR. x4/P///E Ev /W7, JR.

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Patented Oct. 14, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT- OFFICE FLUID MEDIUM CON- TAINER AND CONTROL VALVE THERE- HIGH PRESSURE FOB Archie Towart, In, Caldwell, N. 1., asslgnor to Specialties Development Corporation, Bloomfield, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application March 3, 1938, Serial No. 193,713

. 8 Claims.

v be conveniently and easily released and applied It is accordingly an object of this invention to provide a container for a releasably stored high pressure fluid medium which lends itself to convenient one-hand, one-finger operation, requiring only a relatively small operating force to release the fluid medium.

It is another object of the invention to provide a container of the type referred to, the discharge of which may be regulated as to volume and period, very finely and very quickly, by onefinger manipulation.

to any desired spot, at th same time providing facilities'against accidental or undesired release of the fluid medium, as well as including the provision of a safety release for unsafe pressures. A device 'of this type usually consists of a metallie container, and mounted on the container a valve or release head to confine the carbonic acid in the container during storage and to permit the medium to escape from the container when it is desired to employ it. Attached to the valve is'either a flexible hose or short rigid pipe element to conduct the medium to an outlet nozzle usually provided with a shield, from which the medium escapes'to the point of desired application. The usual practice has been to employ a hand-turnable screw valve,'and more rarely some sort of spring controlled self-closing valve for lower pressures, while various types of handles, either on the body of the container or secured to the release head have been the rule.

There are a number of objections to valves of that nature as combined with handles and containers of the type under consideration, such as the very great force required to turn open such a valve, requiring the use of two hands for operating the devices of known construction, especially when intermittent shutting off is called for, while spring controlled self-closing and other conventional valve types under conditions of high pressures as in this case have not been. found feasible due to structural, leakage and cost considerations. Another objection to spring controlled self-seating valves is the fact that they will close even when the container is empty, which is not desirable, as it may convey the impression that the container is fully charged and ready for use, while in reality only a very small part of the original charge may have been retained or none at all. Since applications of such a device frequently involve a question of safety, such as in fire' extinguishing, it therefore becomes important that the valve is closed only when the requisite amount of compressed gaseous fluid medium is in the container.

Another object of this invention is to provide a container of the above character which has means to guard against undesired operation or release of the fluid medium stored therein due to undesired manipulation, and means to prevent an unsafe increase in pressure of the confined fluid medium due to an increase in the surrounding temperature. 4

It is a, further object of this invention to provide a container of the above character which is so designed as to confine its contents by means of its own pressure, and which will remain open unless a specified minimum pressure exists within the container.

It is a still further object of this invention to provide a container of the character referred to which is simple and inexpensive in construction and which is mechanically trouble-free.

Further objects, not specifically enumerated above, will be apparent as the invention is described in greater detail in connection with the accompanying drawing.

The above objects are accomplished by an embodiment of th invention which provides for a portable container, the fluid pressure medium in which may be released by a one-hand, onefinger operated trigger-operated valve operable from a grip handle, comprising a valve stem and a freely floating valve head held in position by the pressure of the medium it confines, which enables the operator to hold the container, and regulate th discharge thereof as desired with one hand.

Referring now to the drawing:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a container equipped in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a top plan view of Figure 3in'partial section.

Figure 3 is a sectional detailed view of the upper part of container of Figure 1, showing the fluid medium releasing arrangement.

Referring to Figure l, the device consists of a container I, to which is attached a valve 2,

which will be described in detail hereinafter.

The valve 2 is operated by means of a trigger 3 mounted in the grip handle 4 attached to the body of the valve. The fluid medium flnally escapes through the hose or piping 5 secured to an outlet on the back side of valve 2 as viewed in Figure 1. Valve 2 carries a safety release plug 6, which permits of an escape of the fluid when the pressure in the container reaches a predetermined safety limit.

The valve as above referred to will now be described with reference to Figures 2 and 3. Here the valve body 2 is shown threadedly secured at I in a neck opening of container I. To the valve body 2, at 8, is attached also by means of threads the hollow curved grip handle 4. Centrally placed within the handle 4, with its lower portion protruding outside of the body of the handle and pivoted on the trigger pin 9, is the trigger 3. The movement of the trigger 3 is restricted by means of locking pin III, which is loosely attached to the valve body 2 at H by means of the locking pin chain l2. The stem of the locking pin It! extends through the body of grip handle 4 in such a manner as to engage the projection l3 of the trigger 3 and act as an effective stop to any movement of the trigger toward the valve. When operation of the trigger is desired, the locking pin III is pulled out of the handle, allowing free movement of the trigger within the longitudinally formed slot M in the handle 4. The trigger 3 when actuated acts upon a pin-stem l5 slidably disposed within a central longitudinal bore N5 of the valve body 2. Packing ll, held in place by screw plug [8 in said bore, which is enlarged'accordingly, prevents any leakage of the fluid medium toward the handle along the pin-stem I5, The bore I6, at its end away from the handle, is enlarged to form an escape chamber l 9 and a valve seat 20, against which is seated a compressible rubber valve check 2| held in place by the pressure of the fluid medium in the container, which check valve is not in any way connected to the pin-stem i5 and is otherwise freely floating. A discharge passage 22 leads from escape chamber ii! to the outlet conduit 5 attached to tubular extension 24 of the valve body 2. The outlet connection is of the swivel type and comprises a fine mesh screen 25 placed at the bottom of tubular extension 24, which serves the purpose of stopping any dirt or foreign matter from passing into the conduit 5 and thence to any small passage or nozzle to which the conduit may lead. A friction washer 26 is located between mesh screen 25 and the bearing end 21 of conduit 5. A hearing assembly on the bearing end of conduit 5, adapted to swivel in the tubular extension 24, is made up of a threaded ring nut 28, a ring packing 29 and a ring bearing 30 fastened securely to conduit 5, as by soldering. An adjustable ring nut retainer assembly threaded onto the outside of extension 24, comprises ring nuts 3| and 32, the latter flanged and serving to conflne the bearing formation described above in the tubular extension 24. 'I'heentire combination forms a leakage-tight swivel joint of outlet conduit 5 with valve body 2. The valve check 2 I, being wholly unattached, is freely floating in valve chamber 33, which constitutes a further enlargement of central bore l6 and which is in communication with the inside of container l by means of syphon tube 34 secured into extension 35 of valve body 2. Valve chamber 33 is closed by a frangible safety disc 36 which will break and permit the fluid medium to escape to the atmosphere upon the medium in the container attaining a predetermined pressure considered the safety limit of the container. The safety disc 36 is held in the recessed and threaded end of the valve body 2 adjacent to valve chamber 33 between a perforated gasket-washer 31 and safety relief plug 6 threaded into said recessed and threaded end of valve body 2, The safety disc is exposed to the pressure fluid medium in valve chamber 33 through perforation 38 in the gasket-washer rather than through a large central opening, so as to avoid the possibility of having the rubber valve check 2| wedge in such an opening when the container is being charged through the discharge passage 22 and the full pressure of the fluid medium is applied against the check from the outside. The safety relief plug 8 has a central longitudinal passage 39 terminating in radial passages 40, which serve to eliminate any recoil action of the escaping fluid medium under high pressure by dividing the issuing medium into two equal and opposing jets.

From this description, it will be readily apparent that when it is desired to release the fluid medium, the locking pin 10 is withdrawn from the handle 4, and by finger action, trigger 3 is made to bear against pin-stem l 5, which in turn acts against valve check 2|. A slight force only will be required to unseat the check, as upon pin-stem to unseat the check, the valve of the present invention being accordingly in contrast to other types of valves requiring great force to open, as e. g. threaded valves which have to be closed very tightly in order to be leakage proof. It has also been found that valves with a bonding connection between the stem and check are not proof against leakage. However, in the present instance, the pressure of the medium presses the compressible check onto its seat in such a manner as to make leakage impossible, at the same time enabling an easy opening, the compressibility of the check being quite instrumental in accomplishing this result. It has also been found that a cup in the center of the check for reception of the pin-stem is more detrimental than helpful, as during recharging, the stem and check will be separated and a proper reunion would be difficult to obtain. Furthermore, due to the pressure under which the medium is stored, it is not necessary and not practical to entirely unseat the check. In fact, under ordinary circumstances, the pressure does not permit of total unseating of the check, so that as soon as the trigger is released, the pressure acting in the back of the check causes it to seat again, pushing the pin-stem back toward the trigger. The relative proportions of seat 20, check 2! and valve chamber 33 are such as to insure a proper reseating of the check. It will be seen, therefore, that with a minimum of effort a very flne regulation as to period and volume may be had with i this type of release. The fluid medium, upon opening of the check 2|, escapes via passage 22 into conduit 5 and may be directed to any desired spot in a given direction by manipulation of the swivel joint between valve body 2 and conduit 23. When the container has been emptied entirely or to a predetermined low degree, the pressure in the container will not be sufficient to a source of high pressure fluid medium until a merous advantages over prior devices under the operating conditions as outlined above.

I am, of course, aware that many changes in the details of construction and'relative arrangement of parts will readily occur to those skilled in this art and I do not, therefore, desire to be strictly limited to the illustration in the drawings, which has been given to set forth the principles of this invention, but rather to thescope of this invention as it is defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a container adapted to releasably store a fluid medium under pressure, a valve body secured to the container having an inlet passage, a valve chamber, and a discharge passage, safety release means closing said valve chamber and including a fluid medium passage, adapted to release the fluid medium upon its attaining a predetermined unsafe pressure, a seat formed between said discharge passage and valve chamber, a freely floating compressible valve disc in said valve chamber, normally not seated and adapted upon fluid medium being introduced under high pressure through the discharge passage for the purpose of recharging to be thrown against said safety release means, permitting free entry of the fluid medium into the container, and further adapted upon cessation of the recharging pressure through the discharge passage to be seated and retained upon said seat by means of the pressure of the fluid medium now within the container, means to prevent entry of the compressib1e valve disc in the fluid medium passage of the safety release means, and means to unseat said valve disc normally out of contact therewith.

2. In combination, a container adapted to releasably store a fluid medium under pressure, a valve body secured .to the container having an inlet passage, a valve chamber, and a discharge passage, a seat integral with said valve body formed between said discharge passage and valve chamber, a freely floating compressible valve disc in said valve chamber, normally not seated and adapted upon fluid medium being introduced under high pressure through the discharge passage for the purpose of recharging to be thrown against a wall of the valve chamber, permitting free entry of the fluid medium into the container, and further adapted upon cessation of the recharging pressure through the discharge passage to be seated and retained upon said seat by means of the pressure of the fluid medium now within the container, a handlesecured to toward the pin.

3. In a valve, a valve body having an inlet passage, a valve chamber, and an outlet passage,

safety release means including a fluid medium passage forming a closure of the valve chamber and adapted to open to the atmosphere when pressure in the valve chamber reaches a predetermined unsafe value, a seat formed in said discharge passage, a wholly unattached compressible discharge passage closure disc in said valve chamber adapted to, seat on said seat and to be retained thereon by action of pressure in the valve chamber, means to prevent entry of the compressible closure disc in the fluid medium passage of the safety release means, a pin slidably disposed in said valve body, normally out of contact with the closure disc to unseat it, and trigger means normally out of contact with the pin to move said pin toward the closure disc.

4. In a valve, a valve body having an inlet passage, avalve chamber, and an outlet passage, a seat formed in said discharge passage integral with said valve body, a compressible discharge passage closure disc in said valve chamber adapted to seat on said seat and to be retained thereon by action of pressure in the valve chamher, a pin slidably disposed in said valve body, normally out of contact with the closure disc to unseat it, a handle secured to the valve body, a trigger in said handle adapted by single finger manipulation to move said pin toward the closure disc, and normally out of contact with the pin, and removable means in said handle to in said valve adapted to seat on said seat and to be retained thereon by action of pressure in the valve chamber, an apertured element between the valve chamber and the frangible clo: sure member having apertures to permit the escape of pressure through the safety relief passage upon rupture of the frangible closure member but of a size to prevent entry of the compressible valve disc in the safety relief passage, and means to unseatsaid valve disc normally out of contact therewith.

6. In combination, a container adapted to releasably store a fluid medium under pressure, a valve body secured to the container having a discharge passage, a valve chamber having a wall at right angles to the line of flow through the chamber of any fluid stream from the discharge passage toward the container, and an inlet passage leading into said chamber at substantially right angles to said line of flow, a seat formed between said discharge passage and valve chamber, a wholly unattached and freely floating compressible disc in said valve chamber the valve body, a pin slidably disposed in the valve body adapted to act to unseat the valve disc to release the fluid medium but normally out of contact therewith, a trigger mounted in adapted to prevent any flow of fluid medium from the container toward the discharge passage when seated on said seat and adapted to be thrown against said wall to permit the flow of charging medium from the discharge passage toward the container, and means to actuate said discharge passage forthe fluid medium in the.

container beyond a given pressure therein, a seat formed in said outlet passage, a valve disc in said valve chamber unattached and freely movable through the entire extent of the chamber and of a size so as to be confined in the chamber adapted to be seated on said seat by action of fluid pressure through said inlet passage, means unattached to said valve disc and normally out of contact therewith slidably disposed in said valve body adapted to unseat said disc, a grip handle secured to said valve body, trigger means pivotally disposed in said handle adapted to actuate said valve disc unseating means, and fluid medium discharge directing means secured into said valve outlet passage.

8. The combination in a portable liquid carbon dioxide fire extinguisher comprising a container for liquid carbonic acid, or a valve body for attachment to the container having a valve chamber, an inlet passage leading into said chamber and an outlet passage leading from said chamber, safety discharge means forming a wall of said chamber adapted to provide a discharge passage for the fluid medium in the container beyond a given pressure therein, a seat formed in said outlet passage, and a freely movable valve disc entrapped in said chamber adapted to be seated on said seat mainly due to action 20 of fluid pressure through the inlet passage.

ARCHIE TOWART, J R. 

